If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad; if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
- John F. Kennedy

Monday, April 23, 2007

No Compromise

It looks like Harry Reid is going to take this fight over troop withdrawal into the public arena. After his remarks over the weekend:

The military mission has long since been accomplished. The failure has been political. It has been policy. It has been presidential.

I understand the restlessness that some feel. Many who voted for change in November anticipated dramatic and immediate results in January.

But like it or not, George W. Bush is still the commander in chief — and this is his war.

Only the president is the odd man out, and he is making the task even harder by demanding absolute fidelity from his party.

If the president disagrees, let him come to us with an alternative. Instead of sending us back to square one with a veto, some tough talk and nothing more, let him come to the table in the spirit of bipartisanship that Americans demand and deserve.

The White House transcript says the president made those remarks in the state of Michigan. I believe he made them in the state of denial.

WASHINGTON — Defying a fresh presidential veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Congress will pass legislation within days that requires the beginning of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by Oct. 1 and sets a goal of a complete pullout by April 1, 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday.

In remarks prepared for delivery, Reid said that under the legislation, the troops that remain after next April 1 could only train Iraqi security units, protect U.S forces and conduct "targeted counter-terror operations."

Reid knows he has the American public behind him on this and he has carefully chosen his words to let everyone know the score "But like it or not, George W. Bush is still the commander in chief — and this is his war." This is only way we are going to have the spoiled child claiming to be the President either capitulate to the demands of the American people or go down in flames. We need to repeat this mantra over and over. This is Bush's war and Bush's failure and it has been from the beginning. To continue on is insane by definition. It is Bush that must work with Congress and not the other way around.